Alumnus, science guru to lead florida state

December 9, 2009|By Luis Zaragoza, Orlando Sentinel

Florida State University trustees on Tuesday unanimously selected Eric J. Barron, the highly respected director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, to succeed T.K. Wetherell as president of the university.

Barron, 58, won enthusiastic praise from faculty, staff and students during the interview process because of his academic credentials and fundraising expertise.

Trustees wanted someone with those attributes to help raise FSU's academic profile at a time when the bad economy is forcing millions in budget cuts.

"I wasn't looking for a job," Barron said during Tuesday's trustees meeting in Tallahassee. "But this opportunity is with my alma mater. I can't tell you how compelling that is to me."

Some trustees questioned Barron's lack of experience as a senior administrator at a top-ranked university. He has never been a president, provost or vice president. He has previously served as a college dean.

Even so, Barron emerged as the clear frontrunner after three finalists were interviewed last week following a months-long search that yielded nearly 30 applicants.

"He blew everybody away," Jim Smith, trustees chairman and head of the 19-member search committee, said of Barron's impact.

Barron became director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in 2008 after spending two years as dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. He was previously dean of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Pennsylvania State University.

Barron said he felt "guilty and worried" about leaving the center after such a short tenure and would like to have stayed longer.

Smith said the center had offered Barron more money to stay. But Barron decided to pursue the FSU presidency even though interviews and trustee deliberations are public by law, saying he was compelled by the potential for growth he saw at his alma mater.

Barron, an Indiana native, earned a bachelor's degree in geology at FSU in 1973. He has a master's degree and doctorate in oceanography from the University of Miami.

Wetherell, a former speaker of the state House of Representatives, president of Tallahassee Community College and an FSU alumnus, became the university's president in 2003. After weathering some bruising state-mandated budget cuts in recent years, he announced in June that he would step down as soon as a successor could be found.

Wetherell plans to stay connected to FSU as a tenured professor in the College of Education when he leaves the presidency.

"Under Dr. Wetherell's leadership, Florida State University advanced as one of the nation's top public graduate-research universities," Smith said in a statement. "Now, it is well-positioned to vault to the next level, and the Board of Trustees is extremely pleased to be able to select Dr. Barron as the leader who will take us there."

Barron's salary and start date have not yet been set. Wetherell earns about $300,000 in base salary in a total compensation package of about $570,000.